So join me as I explore my own long road, from Maine to Antarctica to the UK, and most things inbetween. This blog is my ramblings from the daily life of a deep-sea biologist living as an alien in the USA, and a way to keep my family and friends in the loop that is my life without filling up everyones mailbox!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

And oh i've been enjoying the week of quiet time and not being bugged, sometimes it's just nice to be off the radar, but I guess that has to end sometime. Life has been going well, but I totally fooled myself into thinking it would be quieter once the container left, work was basically on hold there for a few weeks, so that all hit me and a week and a half on and i'm still playing catch-up!

Here's the update in photos.....

Week before last - Tuesday I spent the day cleaning my little Grodnick house and making sure there was nothing I forgot that needed to go into the container, doing some final packing and repacking of the container.

Week before last - Wednesday - the container was picked up and headed out on it's way. It won't arrive in Maine until the 27th December, just a few days before I do! Right at the moment it's somewhere getting close to California, it should be there on the 30th.

Last weekend - a little Aloha in the Park, getting my leaving party done and dusted - a little early, but with impending holidays and some major marine conferences, this was the best time to catch everyone. Last weekend all saw me start running again, it's been 2 weeks of very sporadic training, and now i'm pretty worried about the marathon.

Last weekend - sweet friends, presented me with a dive computer as a leaving gift, alongside a dancing hula girl for Beach Belle. I'll be thinking fondly of my friends here in Hawaii while I dive in Maine in January!

Last weekend - the end of the Aloha in the Park - a great moonrise, was beautiful!

This week - it's been all about catching up with work, running, and of course Thanksgiving holiday! I love this photo of Hannah and her Dadda!

Jenny and Doug did the first hosting of Thanksgiving in their new kitchen! I cooked the turkey for the day, came out pretty well I think!

This week - Todd and Doug give the turkey some serious carving...

This week - and of course there was plenty of dessert to go around too....:0)

Yesterday - here it was Furlough Friday (that's an enforced unpaid day off work, and a non-teaching day - woo hoo!) and the first one I actually didn't go into work for. I did a little work at home, but mostly hung out with Jenny and Hannah, which was really fun!

So what now. Well, i'm typing this lying in bed trying to stuff down some food at 5.30am so I can run my last long run of marathon training, 20 miles. I'm just hoping it doesn't rain, it's been wet and windy last few days. I'm still $100 from my goal of raising $1 per training mile for Sophie and the SADS Foundation - so if you haven't donated to charity recently now's a good chance to do so! Today's 20 miler is dedicated to my Dad and Sanchia - thanks for sponsoring me guys!

Other than that it's teaching (=exhausting!), catching up with work and trying to get myself organized to actually leave in less than 4 weeks. Yikes that's creeping up! I'll post more often from now.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Packing went well, container loaded - check out the work blog for an update there. Taking a breather, taking the day off tomorrow to clean up my house and hand the keys back, gives me a chance to check over in case anything is missing before the container leaves on Weds. Hoping to get back to running tomorrow, it's been basically 2 weeks off regular runs, and to be perfectly honest, if I wasn't doing this for charity, and hadn't had such motivating sponsors, I would can this marathon, it's going to be a long one! So thank you thank you to all those keeping me motivated!

So a brief break - when I get my head back in a few days i'll be back with a better update, responses to emails and life in general. Until then i'm practicing my best monkey impression while hanging out at the Engels-Holdt's......

Friday, November 12, 2010

This week has been nutso, and the last few days even more so. Needless to say I have only run 5 miles this week, and am beginning to seriously doubt i'm going to be able to make my long run this weekend. Going to have to have some serious make up miles next week! Why again did I decide to tackle the marathon again? It's really going to hurt. Better sponsor me for those miles if you haven't already....:0)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Hannah gives me a lesson in how to organize my wallet. She's so much more organized than me!

The move went well this weekend, I didn't finish packing up my house, but that's okay, I have until the weekend to get my place squared away so I can move boxes into the container. It's been cute staying with Jenny and Hannah (Doug is out at a conference this week, returns on thursday). Hannah helped me settle in well....:0)

Apparently if I want to run faster I have to eat more blueberries.....that's what the whirling dervish tells me anyway!

Participating in the half marathon went well too. I like to say I participate rather than compete, as it's only in my dreams I would ever actually compete in running. It did go well though - 2 hrs 26 minutes - not bad, and nearly a half hour off my only other half marathon. I was a little bummed, as I thought I was doing better than that, but since I did run 2 miles down and 3 miles back after i'm not going to complain. My knee has been sore since though which considering my knee history i'm a little worried about - so i'm sitting with ice right now - much better today than yesterday, so i'm sure I just tweaked it a little trying to run the last downhill over Diamond Head. Sounds ridiculous, but sometimes running down is harder, and hurts more, than running up. I was pretty proud of myself as I ran all the ups and actually stuck to my plan (mostly) of running between water stops, walking for a minute or two after to refresh, and then running on. Only in the somewhat killer stretch on the way back to Diamond Head (a long way without water with no shade) did I walk a little. And in the marathon I know there is a water stop on that stretch, so I didn't feel too badly.

The one thing this race did tell me is that I can't expect a faster marathon time this year. Originally I was kind of hoping to, but this race cinched that that probably isn't going to happen, I just haven't had the time to do that kind of training. Maybe I can shave ten minutes or so, that would be nice, but anything more than that I think, this year, is just unrealistic. Oh well, at least I am still participating, and it's going to be fun!

Bedtime story with the whole family!

But now it's night night time, i'm pooped, today was a full day of teaching, meetings and loading samples, and tomorrow (and this week) aren't looking any better! If I don't update before next week when the container is gone, please excuse me, i'll be back soon!

Friday, November 5, 2010

The little note in with my egg order today! I buy eggs from a colleagues 7yr old daughter who raises hens. One of my favorite things in the world is fresh eggs! Made me smile as I opened the bag this evening. It has been pouring it down for the last week here, I hope it stops tomorrow for us to move me and the futon out of the house. It's cooled down so much I am in trousers, long sleeve shirt and socks!

This is a "Wordle" of my blog! Wordle creates word clouds of the most used words on your blog (I assume just on the one showing page not the whole blog given the arrangements of my words!) and ranks them in order of appearance based on size. Pretty cool. Good way to see what is concerning me most these days - Maine, Car, Invoice, Paid.....he he he...

Hope you have a good weekend! I am moving out of my place tomorrow and running a half marathon on sunday - wish me luck on both counts!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Thinking back to Alaska is still helping me find my "Zen" in these hectic weeks.

1. I'm doing a half marathon this sunday - wish me luck! While i'm at it there are still plenty of miles left to purchase my training pain away and make all those miles worth it! Be sure to check out and sponsor me on my SADS page, yes that means you!

2. Ice is my new best friend. Shins are way better, but i'm still getting the twinge now and then. Ice, twice a day (AM and after run or PM) and all is going well! Ice, I love you.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Okay, so i'm delayed on my Happy List after Moanday, but it means that I was actually busy, being happy, yesterday!

1. University of Maine is awesome. From what I have experienced already, it is doing cartwheels around the support we get at the University of Hawaii. I had a wonderful call from a lady in the procurement department of UMaine. She is dealing with my move. She totally solved all issues with my car, and little Belle, today, got on a truck to the Cape, and should be there on the 17th November. Awesome. She also walked me through other things I hadn't thought of for my move, confirmed the container and was just, generally, awesome. I have loved Hawaii, I have not loved the University of Hawaii. I love Maine and so far I love the University of Maine. Match made in heaven?

2. Did anyone notice that i'm now over 600 miles running? I didn't and it was a wonderful surprise!

3. After a few hours on the phone then getting that phone call from Maine I went on my 9 mile training run (this mileage was for the Kings - thanks guys!) and it went GREAT! I felt great, I blew out all the tension and just enjoyed it! I did 4 laps around my favorite park, stopping at the car for gatorade at each lap (which is around the same distance as the water stops in the marathon - so is great training!).

4. I got to spend some Hannah time yesterday. Play keeps you young, and it's so true, there's nothing better to wipe away stress than spending some time with a bubbly 1.5 yr old! Jenny and I did Costco and they had a great special on a big lion rug, so Jenny got one. So Hannah and I spent the store time roaring at each other. It was awesome. And at the house as I went to leave and said goodbye, Hannah came up to the door and said "Reee, up up!", it was so darn cute. I've officially moved on from Mary thank goodness, she's called me Reee a few times now, so we think it may have stuck, and that's close enough for me! I'm moving in with them this weekend, and can't wait to get some more little H time!

Monday, November 1, 2010

The above picture is to remind me that this weekend was fun, really, it was a lot of fun. I got to pack, relax, run and spend time with friends, you can't get too much better than that. Had dinner with Jenny, Doug and friends on Halloween night, the photo is Hannah playing peek-a-boo with Doug and me while out waiting for Trick or Treaters!

Today however, I need to moan. Nothing seemed to go right. So today i'm going to list out my moans. Tomorrow, after a state holiday day that I might actually take off (or at least just work at home and mix it up with packing) i'll put up a happy list. Today it's moan list time.

1. A parcel of lab supplies that I ordered 3 weeks ago is still not here. Last week they "lost" it and couldn't find it on the tracking (but knew it left on the 18th October). Today I walked into my office to a phone message saying they know where it is, it's on the boat, but they don't know when it's going to get here. Not only have I had to buy supplies from a more expensive place on island to see us through till these supplies arrive, now it doesn't even look like they'll get here before the container leaves! Ak!

2. A paper I sent out the revisions for came back to me asking for 2 revisions that were already made! Not sure what went on there, but everything they've asked for is already done in the files that are already uploaded. Headquarters for the journal is in Europe, so it'll be a while before they figure it out i'm sure. This is an accepted paper that just needs to GO and stop BUGGING me! (long story....)

3. Last week I had a hard-drive conk out. So I bought a new 2TB one from the University store - Lacie (good brand), good price, good to get it there to get it immediately to save the data from this other drive. That one didn't work (made crunchy noises). Got a replacement on friday, worked, set it up to transfer files (would take 12hrs), walked away. Went into work saturday and it still had 6hrs to go. Hmmm. Didn't have time to deal with it. Walked in today, still had 6hrs to go. Ug. It had corrupted, after some playing around it decided to die completely. I'm now on the third one.......sigh. That one "seemed" to work. Guess i'll find out tomorrow if it did.....

4. And the big one. My car. :0( It is in California. Yay. It's not going any further for a while. Boo. The car shipping is being paid for through the university through invoice. I got the quote, organized the invoice and submitted it to UMaine. Told the car company. They had said originally they wouldn't take it until the invoice was paid. So I waited. The next day (after i'd submitted the paperwork to Maine) they called me up to organize the shipping. I asked if the invoice had been paid, they said no, but it didn't matter they'd take it. What they didn't tell me until friday was that though they would take it, they wouldn't deliver it until the invoice was paid. This is the first I had heard of this, and my car is now in California. So now, unless the invoice is paid by this friday (as I haven't dealt with this in Maine before, I have no idea if this is reasonable - here in Hawaii, that would NEVER happen in time), they want to store it, and they want to charge me for storage. Nice huh. No, it was nowhere in all the paperwork I signed either, I would have noticed and I checked today.

I think the thing that pisses me off about #4 on there is the attitude of the company (Transporter Auto Services - do not use them), they actually said to me today "well if you'd told us how long it would take to get the invoice we wouldn't have taken the car". Well duh, if you'd either asked, or mentioned you wouldn't have delivered it without it, I wouldn't have dropped off the car with you until it was! They've admitted they didn't tell me about that gem, but still want to turn this around to be my fault?!? Yeah, cause i'm knowingly going to give you the most expensive item I (half) own knowing it 'aint going to be delivered.....

Only time will see if this one pans out, until my car is in MA, i'm just not going to stop stressing about it......and I have a feeling it's going to be many more hours of phone calls and emails....